Suella Fernandes is now the Conservative candidate for Leicester East, currently a Labour seat, with a majority of just over 13,000. But Suella, a trainee barrister, is undaunted by this figure. "I'm confident of defeating Labour's Keith Vaz and becoming an MP on May 5," she says.

The Tory candidate has been spending up to ten hours a day campaigning. She describes her campaign as "creative". It has involved door stepping, meeting community groups, visiting temples and organising events where voters have a meal and a chance to quiz a prominent Tory.

"I enjoy meeting the constituents and sharing my convictions," says Suella. "I've been persuading them to vote Tory because we are reflecting their concerns with a set of genuine policies that will lead to a reduction in crime, cleaner hospitals and improved school discipline."

She supported her mother, Brent councillor Uma Fernandes at the last general election when she stood as a Tory candidate in Tottenham. "I campaigned quite heavily for my mother and local people suggested I stand for parliament, too," she says.

Meanwhile, Suella completed her degree at Cambridge, and then moved to Paris where she studied law at the Sorbonne. When she returned to the UK she began training as a barrister.

Suella was accepted on the Tory party's nationally approved candidates list in 2003. Last September she was selected to stand in Leicester East.